Amelia's Jewel charges away. Picture: Western Racepix
Imagine finding a rare jewel and not being able to tell the owner how rare and unique it was, just waiting to be polished.
So, picture the one-time Melbourne bank teller turned successful horse trainer Simon Miller and on the other end of the line multi-millionaire businessman and all-round good bloke, Peter Walsh, who has had plenty of good horses, but has waited a lifetime to find one like this.
We are talking about Amelia's Jewel, the very appropriately named unbeaten Perth sensation, the bar room talk rival to Golden Slipper-Sires' Produce Stakes winner Fireburn as the best juvenile in the country.
Miller knew he was onto something in the daughter of French stallion Siyuoni when he first "pulled the trigger" and knew there was a special motor.
But Walsh's Amelia Park Farm manager Sarah Brown and racing manager Sharon King had also heard the whispers but made sure Miller "didn't fire the boss up".
"I just said things (to Walshy) like ‘it's doing everything right' or ‘it looks all right, we are heading in the right direction' but I did say to Walshy I wanted to give her a little break and chase the Karrakatta Plate," Miller said.
Peter Walsh with Simon Miller after winning the Karrakatta Plate with Amelia’s Jewel. Picture: Western Racepix
"But he gave it away one night after he'd had a few," Walsh said.
"He started to pump her tyres up and said you could tie a parachute behind her and she'd still beat them."
The secret soon got out, but one still remained.
Walsh's youngest daughter Jess would turn up at Miller's stables looking for part-time work to pay off a decent veterinary bill for an injured dog, and became the strapper.
She didn't want her father to know, wanting to stand on her own two feet as she was also juggling University studies.
"That's what made it all so special, she'd been there a month and I didn't even know," Walsh said.
What was also special is that his Amelia Park brand sponsors the time-honoured Karrakatta Plate and finally Miller was able to deliver him a win, something that started with a Christmas present.
Walsh's wife Annie didn't know what to buy her husband for Christmas, he has a $1b joint venture in selling meat to China among numerous other successful business interests, but being a racing man, she thought of Royal Ascot and booked a tour.
Without the hint of snobbery, Walsh would line up at the public bar with anyone, he is not one for organised group tours.
"I didn't really want to go, I'm not into buses, but that's how this started," Walsh recalled.
"I got to Newmarket and saw Frankel then they pulled out Kingman and Annie fell in love with him and said he was a better sort than Frankel."
Walsh seconded astute bloodstock agent Louis le Metayer and told him he'd better buy him a mare to send to Kingman. The same thing happened when le Metayer took the Walsh's to France where they saw Siyuoni.
"I told him he'd better buy me another one," Walsh said.
And that he did, Bound Cop only cost 45,000 guineas (roughly $A80,000) to go to Kingman, and Bumbasina 76,000 guineas ($140,000) to go to Siyouni.
The Kingman was a colt and thus sold at Easter last year for $600,000, covering all costs of the operation while as always Walsh and Amelia Park retained the filly (by Siyouni) which is Amelia's Jewel.
"I think we lucked in on giving her the right name," said Walsh, who has raced group performers (with Miller) like Achernar Star, Miss Contiki and Lady Cosmology but got the Amelia's prefix back into the right horse at the right name.
Peter Walsh in a celebratory mood with wife Annie. Picture Western Racepix.
And Amelia is the starting point of the Walsh family business interest going back to 1957 in Western Australia.
Walsh's father Vern and wife Violet (V & V Walsh remains the business name) started a butcher shop in Busselton and then leased land off a local pioneer Amelia Curtis.
"When we were looking for a business name for our meat, we thought why not use Amelia and that's stuck through everything from the lamb and beef to the winery to the venues," Walsh said.
Which is to say headlines like "knocks back offers for Amelia's Jewel" are laughable, Walsh doesn't need the money but craves the fun he's having with his family and friends. (Sunday was a pop-up Karrakatta celebration taking in the local AFL Derby and some sore heads Monday morning).
"I'm actually selling out and retiring in July," Walsh said. His meat processing business produces more than 40 million kilos of product annually, exported around the world and employs 1000 people.
Never one to push his own barrow, he's been a bar manager and a local Busselton footy coach (and played a few games for North Adelaide in the SANFL including the ‘78 premiership) but has worked hard to take the butcher shop to where it is today with his brother Greg, along with his other ventures.
"I'm still building another winery and tavern and bringing a big Chinese chain, but I am ready to wake up and call every day Chooseday, and do what I choose to do."
And that will also include the racehorses.
"He's the best owner ever," says Miller. "There is never any pressure, he lets you do what you want to do. Everything he attacks is successful but he's just one of those good blokes.
The star of Amelia's Jewel's continues to rise. Picture: Western Racepix
"Everybody loves Walshy, they were cheering for him on Saturday, he deserved that, I've got no problem saying this is the best horse he has had and will have."
We now know that after Saturday, Amelia's Jewel has pulled up shin-sore and is in the paddock.
But she will remain loyal to parochial West Australian fans in the spring-summer and chase the Kingston Town Stakes before we see her next autumn in Melbourne, with Walsh indicating she is then most likely to stay in a Victorian stable.
Miller is a Victorian who happily calls Perth home and has no intention of coming home, with his wife Allison a WA local.
"You've got a lifestyle here," Miller says.
"Over there it's seven days a week, travelling to all the tracks, here I can pick my mark and if there is one good enough like this I can bring it over."
That Miller is even training is a story in itself.
Sure, there are bookmakers in the family, horse syndications and breeders but no trainers.
"Mum was pretty high up in the bank, I started as a teller and got my way into international banking and was a business banking manager but my mum's brother was a bookie and I'd go everywhere with him, from the big days at Flemington, to all the non-TABs, Omeo – Swifts Creek, Buchan, I reckon I've been to every track in Victoria," Miller said.
Peter Walsh with Amelia's Jewel. Picture: Western Racepix
Now there is no suggestion that Miller, known to like a punt, was the old fashioned "bank teller" – you know, take it out Friday, back one Saturday, put it back Monday.
"I was doing some work for Charlie Coggin on the side at Geelong at the time, I'd take RDO's from the bank when we had runners before I decided to leave banking and go full time racing," Miller said.
Which meant eight years with Robbie Griffiths at Cranbourne before moving to Perth and eventually meeting Peter Walsh, thanks to some assistance from local race caller Darren McCauley.
Miller might have suggested to a few others, like a punter's club group he is involved in that he thought Amelia's Jewel went OK.
Now we all know that she does, and he was right, and we didn't need a bank teller's job to get on.
She looks a legitimate star, and that for Walshy and Annie and family, is more than enough right now.
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